1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for restraining cargo on trucks and similar transporting vehicles and more particularly to an apparatus for restraining cargo in the bed of a truck such as a pick-up truck.
2. Description Of Related Art
Heretofore, substantial difficulties have been encountered in stabilizing articles such as ladders, lumber and other building materials carried in the open bed of pick-up trucks due to the fact that the articles are often longer than the bed of the truck, thus the articles extend outside of the bed of the truck and can easily fall from same. In the past, a number of U.S. patents have been granted on apparatuses for use with pick-up trucks to stabilize cargo carried in a pick-up truck and these include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,121,849 (Christopher); 4,507,033 (Boyd); 4,343,578 (Barnes); 4,964,771 (Callihan); 4,955,771 (Bott); 4,770,579 (Aksamit); 4,869,628 (Fletcher); and 4,842,458 (Carpenter).
The patent to Christopher is typical of the prior art devices and which discloses a cargo restraint apparatus somewhat like the present invention. The Christopher patent discloses a cargo restraint apparatus for mounting on top of the side walls of the bed of a pick-up truck adjacent to the front wall of the bed. Christopher's cargo restraint apparatus includes an elongated, hollow, support member secured at its ends to the tops of the side walls of the bed of the pick-up truck; an elongated rod provided with left handed threads over one-half of its length and right hand threads over the other half of its length; a crank secured to one end of the threaded rod; two threaded actuators mated with and mounted upon the threads of the elongated rod; two link-like member pivoted to and secured to a respective one of the threaded actuators; and a load engaging element pivoted to and secured to a respective one of the link-like members. The load engaging element of Christopher is moved toward and away from the load by rotation of the crank and the elongated rod moves the actuators to cause movement of the link-like members and load engaging element. The cargo restraint apparatus of Christopher as well as all of the other known prior art cargo restraint apparatuses might be suitable for their intended purposes, but they are generally more complex than the apparatus of the present invention and have other drawbacks and disadvantages. For example, the apparatus of Christopher has a relatively large number of moving parts which can be easily damaged; is substantially exposed above the top of each side wall of the bed of the truck and has a crank which extends beyond the side of the truck which could be easily damaged; and is very complex, particularly when compared to the apparatus of the present invention.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art apparatuses as well as provides several distinct advantages thereover in that it provides an extremely simple apparatus which is mounted below the top of the side walls of the bed of the pick-up truck and incorporates a support member which aids in preventing the separation of anchoring means from the floor of the bed of the truck.